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Haley Joel Osment Thinks Kendrick Lamar’s Joel Osteen Mix-Up on ‘Euphoria’ Was ‘Intentional’

The actor says he received hundreds of texts following the release of "Euphoria" while he was shooting another movie in Ireland.

Haley Joel Osment attends the Los Angeles Premiere of Amazon MGM Studios' "Blink Twice" at DGA Theater Complex on Aug. 8, 2024 in Los Angeles.

Haley Joel Osment attends the Los Angeles Premiere of Amazon MGM Studios' "Blink Twice" at DGA Theater Complex on Aug. 8, 2024 in Los Angeles.

Rodin Eckenroth/Getty Images

Actor Haley Joel Osment reacted to being referenced on Kendrick Lamar’s “Euphoria,” and he believes K. Dot purposefully mixed him up with pastor Joel Osteen on the Drake diss.

The Associated Press caught up with Osment at the Blink Twice premiere in Los Angeles on Aug. 8 to get his thoughts on Lamar’s apparent reference while naming films like A.I. and The Sixth Sense that HJO starred in around the turn of the century.


“Am I battlin’ ghost or AI/ N—a feelin’ like Joel Osteen/ Funny, he was in a film called A.I. And my sixth sense tellin’ me to off him,” Kendrick raps on the track.

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Osment recalled being in Ireland shooting for an upcoming movie when he received hundreds of texts blowing up his phone about Lamar’s “Euphoria,” which peaked at No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100.

“I was shooting in Ireland when all that happened and I got like a hundred texts in the middle of the night. I was like, what is going on,” he said.

While K. Dot actually names Texas pastor Joel Osteen instead of him, Osment believes he did it with intention because of Lamar’s attention to detail, which led him to think there’s a deeper meaning to the mix-up.

“I think he’s too precise,” Osment added. “I don’t know for sure and I’m not gonna assume that he knows my exact name, but the way I’ve heard people talk about that and certain analysis that I’ve read about it, I think that it’s an intentional scrambling of my name and that other guy’s name. Because Kendrick’s too precise to just make a mistake like that.”

Kendrick Lamar also later pulled Osment’s “I see dead people” line from The Sixth Sense to open the Cali bounce of his “Not Like Us” anthem, which topped the Hot 100 for two weeks.

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Watch the clip below.

This article was first published by Billboard U.S.
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Drake
Norman Wong
Drake
Legal News

‘Unprecedented’: Drake Appeals Dismissal of Lawsuit Over Kendrick Lamar’s ‘Not Like Us’

The star's attorneys say the "dangerous" ruling ignored the reality that the song caused millions of people to really think Drake was a pedophile.

Drake has filed his appeal after his lawsuit against Universal Music Group (UMG) over Kendrick Lamar’s “Not Like Us” was dismissed, arguing that the judge issued a “dangerous” ruling that rap can never be defamatory.

Drake’s case, filed last year, claimed that UMG defamed him by releasing Lamar’s chart-topping diss track, which tarred his arch-rival as a “certified pedophile.” But a federal judge ruled in October that fans wouldn’t think that insults during a rap beef were actual factual statements.

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